Topics: Smarter and Faster Ways of Teaching English Using Technology; Classroom Misconceptions
Date/Time: Saturday, 9/19, 10am~12pm
Venue: Gyeongin National University of Education, Gyeonggi Campus, Teacher Training Center Room 101 (Directions)
Workshop Coordinator: Tyler Clark, sparkyclarky@gmail.com
Details: The Suwon-Gyeonggi KOTESOL chapter’s September workshop features two speakers, Jun S. Heo presenting “Smarter and Faster Ways of Teaching English Using Technology” and Adam Coates presenting “Classroom Misconceptions”.
As always, attendance is free and refreshments will be provided.
Questions or comments may be directed to the Suwon-Gyeonggi KOTESOL chapter president Tyler Clark at sparkyclarky@gmail.com.
More detailed directions and information about KOTESOL may be found at http://koreatesol.org/suwon.
Abstracts:
Presentation 1: “Smarter and Faster Ways of Teaching English Using Technology”
First, making and posting short video clips of answers for frequently asked questions from the students on Youtube can save you classroom time. Students can view these clips any time of the day. Second, you can use a program called “Sound Forge Pro 10” to improve teaching efficiency for listening activities. You can play or pause a specific part of sound files you have, which helps students understand blended sounds, important phrases, target expression, and so on. Lastly, a beam projector is a good tool to have for teaching reading in middle school and high school. Rather than wasting time writing the sentences from the textbook, you can project a specific page to your existing whiteboard and highlight target sentences, grammar and so on.
Presentation 2: “Classroom Misconceptions”
The arising of misconceptions is a common occurrence in the classroom, and one might argue that the main role of a teacher is not so much the giving of correct concepts but that of correcting misconceptions. The emphasis on creating an atmosphere in which mistakes can be made and addressed without embarrassment is a common theme within professional development. Nonetheless, while teachers might seek to construct this ideal classroom of anxiety-free error correction, teachers themselves show great reluctance in examining the accuracy of their own conceptions. Partly from lack of time, resources, and dismissal of macroscopic perspectives, many teachers continue myopically, building habits and routines based on misconceptions that will continue through their career. If these ideas that form the foundation of a teacher’s practice are challenged, they are aggressively defended and valid evidence is often dismissed as subordinate to their own experience. This interactive presentation seeks to address a number of misconceptions that teachers might have. While participants may leave with a more accurate knowledge in some areas of teaching and learning, the intention of the workshop is to raise awareness of how such misconceptions arose and could continue to arise. The presentation seeks to provide participants with greater understanding of the limitations relying only on experience and thinking that led to the creation of such misapprehensions, and suggest methods for overcoming these.
Speaker Bios:
Jun S. Heo is an English teacher currently working for Bucheon high school. He taught in middle school for 4 years and has been teaching in high school for 6 years. He has been working as an online lecturer for EBS (Education Broadcasting System) since 2008. Notably, he was chosen as a full time lecturer for EBS from 2013 to 2014. He likes to work on his Facebook Page and Naver online cafe in his free time.
Adam Coates is an instructor at the Gyeonggi-do Institute for Foreign Language Education where he delivers professional development to Korean teachers. Originally trained as a mathematics teacher in the UK, since arriving in Korea 5 years ago he has redirected his focus to language teaching. He has taught English in a variety of contexts, ranging from Elementary level to senior Public Servants. His academic interests include processes of learning and teacher training.
